Accountable Care Organizations More Likely To Use Home Visits To Help Manage Complex Patients’ Care

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are more likely to use home visits to manage patients who have complex medical needs than non-ACO physician practices, a new AHRQ-funded study published in Health Affairsfound. Home visits have been shown to improve care transitions following hospital discharge and enhance overall care management, and Medicare has created new reimbursement models to support home visits for some patients. In the study, ACOs reported three main home visit activities: assessing patients’ needs, reconciling medications use and identifying patient barriers to effective care. Among Medicare ACOs, researchers found no differences in quality scores or likelihood of achieving shared savings between ACOs that used home visits and those that did not. Researchers noted that, despite their perceived value, implementing home visits for some types of patients can be challenging because of barriers related to reimbursement, staffing and resources. Access the article.